The working core of the conference was the three daily meetings of people who are involved in the same sector in the three countries, whether they represent a government agency, mass organization, local NGO, professional association, foundation, university, multilateral development agency, bilateral donor, business or international NGO. Sectoral meetings offered an opportunity for participants to profit from each other's experience, develop means of ongoing communication and consider cooperative projects and exchanges. Twenty sectoral groups met during the course of the Forum.
Agriculture, Fisheries and Irrigation
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1. Transferring technologies to farmer, strengthening the farmer movement
The group discovered that there are some main points that need to be done for transfer of technologies to farmers and strengthening the farmer movement. They are:
- selection the target area,
- field study,
- selection of target people,
- people participatory for find their needs and way of implement,
- training/visiting,
- pilot project
- sustainable ways of using natural resources and reproduce of seeds for our needs such as managing slope area and reproduce crop’s seeds and expand activities including self produce of seeds for use.
- extension work
- irrigation management
- fisheries and livestock
How to transfer technologies
- field studies
- participation approach
- training on the job
- pilot project
What kind of techniques we supply to the farmers
- appropriate and simple techniques
- field school training and meetings
For strengthening and directing the farmer movement, we focused on
- Farmer Cooperatives,
- linkage of private sector to farmers,
- alternative ways of slush and burn to new technologies and sustainable use of natural resources.
State/Ministries and supporting agencies should be encouraged to work with the farmers’ movement in those fields mentioned.
2. Impact of Cross sectors
This factor we focused on was the consequence and affect of one sector having bad effects on the other sectors during implementation. Those sectors are irrigation, deforestation, fisheries, etc. We should develop a policy of alternative strategies for avoiding the impact of one sector to another sector. Cross sector roles of the state farmers, NGO’s, and private sectors need to be addressed. Relationships between all sectors, impacts of one sector to another, innovative ways to solve problems, projects should be respected as to the people’s needs and our final consideration to conserve our environments.
3. Market Promotion
Food markets should be developed at local levels for local needs and food security programs implemented. The market policy price should prevent the poor from trader exploitation. Agricultural co-operative markets, food producer promotion, competitive quality and costs, and information for farmers should be made available. We should develop tax policies and exemptions for food export and agricultural equipment imports. The governments should buy products from the farmers and sell with proper policies in place. Beside the government, the farmers themselves should form their co-operative in order to buy the agricultural products of the members, store them, and then sell them at the best price to the consumer.
4. Recommendations
Improving partnerships for poverty alleviation and sustainable development by developing the policy of partnership in
- farmers-farmers
- NGO-NGO
- NGO-government
- government-government
- and sector-sector.
This is to be done at all levels and at all places for the purpose to solve common problems and the needs of the regions.
Facilitator: Mr. Sil Vineth, P.O.Box 472, Phnom Penh, Cambodia, sedoc@forum.org.kh.
Representatives for discussion from Lao: Mr Anonh Khamloung and Viet Nam: Mr. Dat Quorc Nguyen.
Recorder: Ann Howden, Lao P.D.R. ann_howden@hotmail.com
AIDS/HIV/STD
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The objectives of the HIV/AIDS/STD Sectoral Group were:
- To learn from one another's experiences and insights,
- To discuss in depth one or more issues, such as:
- Integrating HIV/AIDS/STD into development
- Prevention beyond awareness raising
- Care and support (including orphans)
- Gender & HIV/AIDS/STD, and
- To develop concrete examples of partnership.
After discussing the theme and objectives of the group, the participants then spent the first session introducing themselves and their organizations, and indicating which issue/s they wished to discuss in depth. At the end of the session, the group decided to focus on "Integrating HIV/AIDS/STD into Development," and to invite some group members to give more detailed descriptions of their work on this.
At the second session, Medicins du Monde (Viet Nam) presented a video on the Condom Café at the Ho Chi Minh City Youth Cultural Hall. The work of the Condom Café focuses on HIV/AIDS/STD prevention and condom promotion among young people. One of the points made was that HIV/AIDS/STD needs to be presented as integrated in the lives of the young people.
Friends (Cambodia) and Maryknoll (Cambodia) then described their work with children infected with and affected by HIV/AIDS. This work focuses both on prevention as well as care and support. It was made clear that poverty makes the challenges of HIV/AIDS/STD harder, and that HIV/AIDS/STD itself worsens poverty, and this impacts on national social and economic development.
The last presentation was from the Khmer HIV/AIDS NGO Alliance (KHANA, Cambodia). KHANA pointed out that HIV/AIDS/STD programs are often only implemented by specialized agencies and mobilization of other resources is still limited. It was also pointed out that donors still have a limited sectoral perspective on HIV/AIDS/STD, not considering how it interacts with other development issues, such as health, education, and law enforcement. The discussion then went on to what a multi-sectoral response to HIV/AIDS/ STD means, and how such a response should be developed.
At the third and last session, the facilitators asked each participant to write responses on cards to the questions:
- What works best in integrating HIV/AIDS/STD into development?
- What should we avoid?
- What are our recommendations?
This process was designed to move the group from detailed discussions about only a few organizations towards a more inclusive approach, where each person could participate. The group came up with the following recommendations:
- Top-level commitment, policy development reflecting the integration of HIV/AIDS/STD into development at the national level, and ensuring adequate resources for HIV/AIDS/STD programs,
- Donor commitment and maintaining support for NGOs and others involved in the response, also recognizing the need to integrate HIV/AIDS/STD into development,
- Strengthening multi-sectoral responses to HIV/AIDS/STD through sharing information, collaboration in planning and implementation, among organizations and between NGOs and government. Furthermore, there should be no need to wait for top-level commitment or national policy - activities integrating HIV/AIDS/STD into development should simply be started to begin a quick response. There should be clear objectives about integrating HIV/AIDS/STD into development - what should programs do, how and to what extent?
- Maximizing private sector involvement in HIV/AIDS/STD responses
- Building capacity of people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) groups.
At the end of the session, the group agreed to disseminate the participant list and this report among the group participants by e-mail.
Recorder: Mr. Choub Chamreun (Khmer HIV/AIDS NGO Alliance, Cambodia) khanapt@bigpond.com.kh
Co-facilitators: Mr. Ted Nierras (Australian Red Cross, Lao PDR)
Dr. Niramonh Chanlivong (Macfarlane Burnet Centre, Lao PDR)
Community Development - Rural
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Rural Community Development how to build trust and solidarity in a stable population
N.B.: In this paper on rural development, the first page is optional.
Technical aspects discussed: Partnership in community development; trust; capacity building (training, project planning and implementation) methodologies
Resource base issues: How to improve quality of and access to education, protect the environment and improve food security.
Social problems discussed: rural exodus, youth, drugs, recruitment of young women into the sex industry; health in particular sexual and reproductive health, HIV/Aids prevention,
Food security
A. The lack of it is a major problem in rural areas, particularly in the isolated areas. There are many contributing factors; insufficient land available, there may be UXOs left over from the war; the land is not productive, there are irrigation problems; ownership is often unclear and limited to usufructus, so wealthy people can grab the land (Cambodia).
There are not enough skills to diversify and increase the production. In addition, all this is compounded by lack of support and trust within the community
B. Proven strategies
- Encourage the community to find the rot of the problem
- Seek and promote alternative sources of income;
- Group farming
- Credit and revolving funds
- Promotion of private sector and NGO involvement
- Provide seeds, fertiliser, manuals technical assistance,
- Land allocation for limited time based on production (solution proposed for Laos)
Education
A. There is a lack of awareness if the value of education. Ethnic minority children come to school and do not speak the language of instruction. Problem with the variety of languages with need interpreters High number of dropouts to seek employment or help at home. Girls are not encouraged to continue their schooling Poor facilities, lack of qualified teachers, long distances between homes and schools for small children; it is difficult to maintain schools in every village.
B. Strategies:
- Train people from ethnic minority communities to be teachers
- Youth Union programme where members go to remote areas during the school holidays to teach children in isolated areas. Teaching street children (in the rural areas???)
- Informal education (Cambodia) provided in the evenings by local NGOs, flexible hours, TOT, encourage girls to go to school
- NGOs working with the government (in Viet Nam) to increase access for small children, supplying facilities.
- NGOs in Laos: help to build schools, teacher training, teacher support, after school activities (dancing/sports)
- Government (Laos) provide training courses and teaching aids.
General:
From discussing major issues such as health, education and food security it became clear that successfully addressing any of them depends essentially on building trusting relationships of mutual understanding and a vision of what is to be achieved shared by all the stakeholders:
The case of Cambodia: After twenty years of civil war, even though the war is twenty years ago, the distrust remains. Many people are reticent to trust others and to work together in communities. There is, for that reason, a lack of interest in contributing to public works in their own communities. Without trust, however, there will be no genuine local contributions to projects, there will be no sense of ownership and the project will not be sustainable.
The case of Laos: A divisive strategy of a number of INGOs is that they pay for local in kind and in labour contributions. The Lao government cannot afford this luxury hence the practice leads to confusion about the true motivations of he community for their contributions.
The case of Viet Nam: The village people often perceive NGOs as founders, not partners. Furthermore, the funding is perceived as a charity, not as a prop for technical co-operation in a sphere of partnership. INGOs also differ greatly from one another in working style and approach. Information sharing is far from optimal. In certain regions a number of NGOS are working simultaneously, yet it is difficult to get information from local people about similar projects that are ongoing in the region.
Recommendations for building trust in rural community development
- More government openness to information sharing to encourage a culture of trust
- Improve the coordinating role of the government in working with NGOs in project areas.
- Increase solidarity among local civil society organizations.
- In order to work effectively towards common goals, make use of all available expertise; the government should create more favourable conditions for international staff, so that they can be used at all levels.
- Forums should be established where organizations and government representatives communicate about activities in a specific location
- Encourage and increase community participation wherever possible.
- Make sure communities and government authorities understand that NGOs are not working FOR but WITH communities.
- More communication is needed about policies for interaction with communities amongst governments and NGOs, i.e. whether or not local contributions will be paid for, or whether incentives will be given.
- Base program on the recognition of a common agenda, where NGO goals fit in with government policies.
Rural development part prepared by Katie Walker. Transcribed and minimally edited by Laetitia van Haren, 22 June 2001
Community Development - Urban
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Urban Community Development how to build solidarity and trust in a floating population
Why urban community development?
1) To help people who live in the same slum or otherwise disadvantaged neighbourhood develop a sense of community and join forces to overcome collectively encountered problems, legal, social, environmental or with their resource base.
2) To combat such problems as drug addiction and alcohol, prostitution and other forms of violence and abuse, through strengthening the community and its basic values, and to help develop more edifying alternatives
3) empower poor urban communities through access to health and education, saving schemes and informal education for adults.
4) Show the government and local authorities how poor urban neighbourhoods can be stabilised and the living conditions improved.
Obstacles to urban community development, problems encountered:
1) Insecurity of tenure, people can get evicted from one day to the other; this is both an obstacle to UCD and the reason why it is necessary
2) Different ethnic and regional origins of the population, varying dates of arrival, and also different types of legal status: residence status, job seeker, temporary visitor: all these make the building of trust and solidarity very difficult…
3) In some instances, the local authorities are too overbearing and it shies the people away from active involvement, (risk of population's withdrawal);
4) In other cases, the local authorities see the UCDP as an excuse not to help, because an NGO is already taking care of it, so the problem is solved (Risk of Gvt's withdrawal)
5) Very often, the continuity is at stake because after the three years that the project was kick- started with money from without, the local authorities do not take over the project - even if there are funds for urban poverty alleviation, because it never fits in
Observations on methodology
Urban Community participatory development is a very slow process. You have to be very patient. Many steps have to be taken and conditions fulfilled:
1) First assess the neighbourhood, to determine if they need an urban community development intervention, and what kind is feasible from the project or NGO's point of view (staff available, and funds) as well as what the local authorities accept.
2) Assess, with participation of the community, (and with local authorities in the case of Viet Nam and Laos) what the problems are: environmental sanitation, peddling/use of drugs, prostitution, violence, alcohol, unemployment, disease, children out working instead of attending school,.
3a) Sit down with the community and the government (in Laos and Viet Nam), to discuss needs and possibilities for solutions.
3b) Sit down with the community (in Thailand and Cambodia), then approach the authorities in a later stage to discuss needs and possibilities for solutions.
4) Encourage the people to designate/choose/vote a leader and spokesman. In Laos and Viet Nam, this is always someone who is also accepted by the government, and has already some formal or informal authority. In Thailand and Cambodia, it is better the community leader has no political party connections. In all three countries, the person designated is usually older and commands respect, because he has a position of local influence, he is wealthy or educated, such as a teacher. Often a man is chosen as the all - round leader (confucian heritage?). Women can be chosen, depending on the specific purpose of the group formed.
5) A special challenge is the forming of groups for savings and loan schemes. Though diversity of ethnic and geographical origin is seldom a source of conflict in most urban neighbourhoods, when something is set up that demands a lot of trust, such as a savings scheme and loan fund, people will prefer to work with close relatives or people they have known for a long time, and/or originating from same ethnic background, village or region. This makes it very hard to let newcomers participate in such projects.
6) The success of urban development groups depends to a large extent on the care with which the process was set in motion. This applies especially to savings and loan schemes.
7) Informing the urban poor about their rights and help them obtain what they are entitled to, is an important aspect of UCD. There are funds to help poor urban communities, but they are not always used in the right way, and the government lacks manpower for good implementation. Also the public needs be informed about laws and development plans and decrees that may affect them.
Success depends to a large extent on officials' capacity and goodwill:
For example, in Cambodia, the Government set up a compensation scheme for slum dwellers who live on grounds the government needs for development. Slum dwellers who are to be evicted will get compensatory land, if they can prove they are residents of such an area. But it is easy to buy an identity card of the right area from a corrupt official and then receive a plot of land. That will then be used for speculation by the buyers. In Viet Nam, the NGOs work hand in hand with the local authorities, and therefore the success of projects depends also to a great extent from the co-operation and good-will of the local authorities. In Thailand and Cambodia, the NGOs are more like middlemen brokering between the communities and the authorities and get into a form of collaboration or consultation in a later stage. In Thailand, successful interplay with capable, good-willing officials may bring subsidies and municipal support, while the NGO is still active, so the community and NGO can anticipate continuity, so the future is a lesser worry than in Viet Nam.
The differences between urban and rural community development are great because the conditions are really very different.
1) In rural communities, traditional groupings exist, you have to mobilise them: in urban neighbourhoods, the sense of community is often minimal and has to be built from scratch through the project intervention, with great patience.
2 The problem of access to basic services is different from that encountered in rural communities. In the rural areas, there may be no clinic and no school, and no money to go to a district hospital or school away from the village. In the slums, it is possible to send the children to school, if you can afford to keep them out of work and it is possible to get medical help, often for free for the poor, but you have to know where and how.
3) In urban neighbourhoods, families live individually but the problems are collective. In the villages, they live in communities but problems may be need for individual betterment (agricultural productivity, for instance)
The Link Urban-Rural Development
The real underlying issue is growing population pressure on the rural areas. The rural exodus in all three countries is alarming. In Cambodia there is no land shortage, though, whereas in Viet Nam there is. In Laos and Thailand, there is shortage of arabale land, but to a lesser degree than in Viet Nam. The problem starts with population growth, leading to pressure on the farmland, therefore fragmentation of the farms:
Population growth triggers the process:
A man has to divide up his land as his sons marry. Then the plots are so small that they can’t feed the family anymore. Also the smaller plots can be farmed by the women alone. Then the men go to the towns and cities to seek work. This they sometimes find, but sometimes not. They have little idea about the cash economy, so they can be easily cheated. They can easily lured into drinking alcohol and buying sex from prostitutes. Then the cycle has started, and no UCPDP can ever stop it.
Conclusion and recommendations:
1) UCD is not a panacea. It has its limits, it reaches only 10% of the slum population at the most, so it must be a model, an encouragement. It is not what pulls peasants to the city. They are pushed out by farm fragmentation, and absence of alterntives to supplement insufficient self-produced food. Comprehensive rural development is a must: what about tax incentives for investors who build their factory in the countryside instead of the city.
2) To build up sustainable urban community action, we have to make sure we develop a trusting partnership between the community, the local authorities and the NGOs. This depends on regular assessment and monitoring, clear understanding of each partner's responsibilities and the UC Development agents doing their homework about the destination plans and legal status of the slum or neighbourhood they are working with.
3) Though all UCD encountered the same comparable challenges in all countries reviewed, there are noticeable variations according to the form of government and type of economy:
- In Cambodia, the main concern at present is to assist the slum dwellers against threatening evictions;
- In Thailand, it is empowerment for moral rebuilding of the urban communities that is at stake.
- In Viet Nam, the fight against eviction and social evils.
4) In all countries the ultimate purpose is always the overall improvement of the slum dwellers' individual and collective living conditions.
5) In all three countries it a long slow process that requires a lot of patience: Between the day of the data collection and the identification of problems with the slum dwellers, and then the whole evolution towards a chosen committee and action, many days, months and even years will come to pass.
6) But please don’t despair, for urban community development interventions work. There is pressure on the government not to let the poor down, and as openness grows in some of the previously closed countries, successful projects that empower the urban poor have a lasting impact. They change the society. Many people who started as volunteers in urban community development have become successful businessmen or high level civil servants or politicians.
Disaster Preparedness and Relief
No Report Available
EDUCATION: PRE-SCHOOL AND PRIMARY
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By the beginning of the second session the group had developed a framework for tackling the issues:
Using a child-centered model, four themes/issues were identified:
- Access (facilities, materials, teachers, community participation)
- Equity (gender, ethnicity, urban/rural/remote)
- Quality (curriculum, teacher)
- Relevance (curriculum, language of instruction, local/community)
It was acknowledged, or discovered, that all four themes were related. For purposes of discussion we initially divided the four related themes into two axes: Access/Equity, Quality/Relevance. However, in practice, boundaries blurred. For example, children will not go to school (access) if the curriculum is irrelevant.
Much of the first session’s discussion focused on pre-school, though it was generally agreed that this concept was too narrow and that it was more profitable to think of Early Childhood Development (ECD).
Questions of equity underpinned the entire discussion. This was because it was discovered that in all three countries ethnic minorities, particularly girls, living in rural and remote areas, had the worst access to education. This trend was more pronounced with pre-school. This raised difficult questions: education for whom? Education for what? This led to discussion about relevance. It was agreed that the most important element of relevance was a clear and specific link between education and livelihood. This raised issues of food security and health. While acknowledging that the education sector alone could not tackle these issues, it was agreed that the curriculum could play a much larger role. Two of our participants spoke of an Integrated Pest Management Program (IPM) in Primary Schools being conducted in Cambodia. This program seemed to fit well the criteria of relevance. Improving relevance for these most disadvantaged groups was considered a vital ingredient of improving quality. A second assumption was that improving quality would lead to more equitable access.
The following model summarizes the group’s ideas about the key ingredients of a schooling program, pre-school or primary. We singled out the teacher as the most important aspect.
There was some feeling that all programs should be conducted in the first language (based on what we know of children’s cognitive and linguistic development) and that donors should encourage the funding of such programs, particularly where ethnic minority girls will benefit.
Gary Ovington email: Ovington@loxinfo.co.th
Education: Secondary, Vocational
No Report available
Education: University, Graduate Work, Research, Exchanges, Distance
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The sectoral group convened on three occasions to discuss a number of issues relating to higher education in Cambodia, Laos and Viet Nam. Upon the completion of these meetings, the participants identified several common issues and provided recommendations for the further actions on those issues. These recommendations should be understood to provide general guidelines that will have to be implemented on a country specific basis. Because higher education is essential to the creation of intellectual capital and skill building, higher education is essential in creating future leaders. , technicians, planners and those members of society necessary to alleviate poverty and sustain development in all fronts.
Below are the main issues identified by the sectoral group and recommendations for further consideration in addressing them:
Issue 1: Teacher shortage and training
- There should be training grants to support foreign study by teachers, Teachers must return to teach in their home countries
- The development of greater financial incentives to keep teachers in the education field is crucial. Likewise, teachers must be provided with continuing education and incentive to actively participate in it.
Issue 2: Teaching methods:
- Training workshops inviting senior, experiences lectures as well as foreign lecturers should be developed to promote greater exchange of teaching methodologies.
- Greater linkages for faculty exchange or an international level
Issue 3:Research
- Development of an ongoing campus science center using technology and professional exchange
- Research should focus on and relate to material taught in class and in the student’s are of study.
- Government industry and universities should develop incentives to promote faculty development through research. In time, it is hoped that this will also be linked to the development of a system of meritocracy
- NGO internships
- Research should expend beyond math and science to social areas to provide support and growth to society at large
Issue 4: International Cooperation
- Local and foreign universities should focus on their abilities and talent to locate areas of mutual benefit. This should create lasting and more stable relationships
- Development of joint research projects
- Development of greater foreign language facility to support educational exchange internationally
- Earlier and closer cooperation between local and foreign universities to plan projects and obtain funding
Issue 5: Increasing educational access:
- Develop policies to promote completion of primary and secondary level eduation by women. Over time this will increase potential access to higher educatuion
- Develop policies to promote greater merit based access
- Clearer policies between government and universities regarding student costs, tuition , admission (Cambodia)
- Expansion of the number of private institutions
- Development of policies to make education more affordable (student loans, scholarships)
Issue 6: Standards and Quality of Education
- The term ‘quality’ education should be defined within each country. What are the criteria for such an education?
- Develop instruments to measure educational achievement
- Develop a system of accreditation to insure a uniform level of education. Such a system must apply equally to both public and private institutions
- Development of credit transfer system
Item 7: Investment in higher education
- There should be a fundamental investment in higher education as the products of that education form the intellectual capital of society. Such investment should not detract from investment in the primary and secondary levels
- Development of loans and scholarships (see issue 5 generally)
Item 8: Relevance of Education
- Universities should be responsive to the needs of their students, local communities and the nation in general
- There should be some system to evaluate the results of student educational experience, i.e. to measure the results of educational outputs.
Environment, Ecology Restoration
No Report available
Health: Primary Health Care and Reproductive Health
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The group consisted of over 22 people of diverse backgrounds. Participants were from all three countries representing government officials, mass organizations, NGOs, international organizations and educational services. Four topics were chosen to focus discussion:
- Community Health services integration
- Community development
- Sustainability/budget
- Coordination collaboration across borders
The larger group broke into two smaller groups with each group discussing two topics. Discussion followed the group feedback with the following conclusions: